Todays bike ride

On my bike ride this morning I took my camera along and took some scenic pictures as I pedaled along. This is the trail that runs right through my town. On a Sunday morning the trail is less congested than it is during the week, so you can relax and enjoy the view!

Looking back at our roots!

I know I have been on a blogging frenzy lately, but this picture is just too good to pass up! I think we must have all been going through a growth spurt as we all look a little under nourished! It's always nice to look where we came from, and from this photo Hill billy/ white trash comes to mind!

It's been 30 years!

In the fall of this year it is going to be thirty years since I started at Farmer John. My first thought is thank goodness I do not work there anymore! I was just a green naive 21 year old when I started. I was hired for a new shift which was made up of a bunch of meat cutters who had learned their craft at Chino men’s prison. The parolees were also all living in halfway houses. My other fellow employees were recent refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia. It was quite an eye opener for white bread kid from the suburbs!
Mike also worked at Farmer John, he was the one who got me the job. He pretty much worked in the same department all the time, ham slicing. I was all over the place in that job. I think I just about worked in every department.
Looking back I just can’t believe how dangerous that place was. I saw a guy get his hand caught in a ham skinner. I saw whole rails that the hog were strung up on tear from the ceiling and come crashing down. I remember ammonia leaks (used for refrigeration) in which they had us put on gas masks so we could continue working. I worked on the kill floor in which the temperature was always pushing 100 degrees with steam every where, then pushing the hogs into coolers with temperatures in the low forties. I worked an elevator in which the chilled hogs would be taken downstairs to be cut up. We would load 30 hogs on to the elevator, the hogs would be hanging from a rail as we descended to the next floor. One day I was running the controls when all of a sudden the elevator goes into a free fall. I started hitting the up button as we were going down and it slowed us down till we hit bottom with a big thud. There were just so many ways you could get hurt there.
After six years of escaping injury I went to work for the Post office. I remember when I left I was making 10.25 an hour and I was taking a pay cut at the post office at 9.37 an hour. I was really concerned at the time about the pay cut The one thing that made the decision easier is that we went on strike on October 1st of 1985 and I knew that I was due to report for work at the post office November 4th. For about 10 years after working there I used to have dreams all the time that I was late for work there. Leaving there was one of the better decisions I ever made in my life!
The reason I thought of this, I found a picture of me working there. You will notice I had more hair in those days, and I was quite youthful! I would be eligible for my pension now if I continued working there, I'm just not sure if I would have had all my limbs!

No Regrets

I know I just posted a few days ago but I thought I would like to share with all of you what has been on my mind as of late. Two weeks ago when we had our garage sale,Terri Beck's daughter and I were sitting in the driveway just chatting away as we had no shoppers all morning. Terri asked me a question that I have been thinking about ever since she asked it! She asked me if I knew that before I moved from California that this is how everything would turn out, would I have still made the move. First of all I'm grateful that she is comfortable enough with me that she was able to ask such a tough question. I have spent the last few weeks thinking this one over.

I guess I have finally formulated some what of an answer. If you told me 10 years ago this is how it was going to turn out, I would have had serious reservations about moving. I am glad that we do not know how life is going to turn out. There is so much I would have missed.

First off I got to marry the love of my life who was my best friend. I would have missed all the adventures that we seemed to get ourselves in. Beck found out some of my interests (Elton John, Drag racing) and made them her interests! We made trips back to California, Ireland, Florida, and anywhere that Elton John played that was drivable (Columbus, Oh, Pittsburgh Pa, Kitchener Ontario Canada, Hershey Pa). It has been the happiest eight years of my life. So I think the real question Terri was asking was; did I have any regrets? The answer is I have no regrets!

my bike ride

It has been a while since I have posted anything. I think part of the reason for that is life has settled down a little, and I am kind of getting into a boring routine.

Last weekend during the yard sale that we had I decided not to sell Beck's bike as I knew I would never come close to getting the money back that we paid for it. I ended up giving it to Terri Beck's daughter to enjoy. Then it came to what should be done with my bike. I decided to pull it off the rack on the wall and clean it up, put some air in the tires, and oiled all the critical places!

This morning I threw the bike in the back of the truck and drove to the bike trail we have in our community. The bike way was created from an old railroad right of way that was torn out a long time ago. They have paved it and it is nice and smooth. It winds through the country side through farm land and woods. It was absolutely beautiful! I saw cardinals, rabbits, a black squirrel , a turtle, all that was missing was Marlin Perkins! The first part of the ride was a slight upgrade. I rode up hill for five miles and then turned it around and I was ready for five miles of down hill riding. It was an exhilarating ride! My only fear was that some bunny would run out in front of me and cause me to take a spill! It was 55 minutes of scenic splendor!